Obama's recovery plan overlooks IT workers

It was a marvelous speech and an historic day. But President Barack Obama's words during yesterday's inauguration ceremony added little comfort to the thin gruel of aid his new administration will be targeting at information technology workers whose jobs and lives have been shattered by our current economic meltdown.

I'm not against any of Obama's proposals, but they do precious little to get U.S. IT workers back to work. The emphasis of the new president is on repairing the nation's infrastructure.  By that he means roads, bridges, airports, schools and other brick and mortar places that desperately need refurbishing. All of that proposed work is good. But little or nothing about it will put laid off IT workers back on the job -- unless you want to drive your car over a bridge repaired by former Java programmers and out-of-work sys admins.

Visit his Change.gov site and scroll way down his plan for economic recovery to see how little is there for the IT community. First, it lumps science investment with technology and, while there is overlap, they are not one in the same. Second, it proposes to make an existing tech-friendly tax credit permanent. Finally, and this is all, it will deploy the "next generation" broadband and reform the Universal Service Fund, a government program primarily in place to assure poor and rural people can make phone calls.

All good. But, come on, that's it?

IT workers on the vendor and user side are being undone. The devastation on Wall Street has eliminated many thousands of IT-related jobs in the financial sector alone. EMC this month announced it is cutting six percent or 2,400 jobs. Dell is in the midst of $3 billion cost reduction effort that could cost 11,000 workers their livelihood. IBM workers are bracing for layoffs and rumors abound at Microsoft's Redmond campus that cuts will hit there as well. According to one source, more than 115,000 tech jobs vanished in 2008. And the prognosis without major intervention for 2009 is even worse.

All politicians pay lip service to the innovation that IT generates in this country, innovation that creates good, high-paying jobs. Well, if Obama really wants to put Americans back to work, he needs to focus on IT workers whose genius and creativity are as vital to this nation's future as auto, road and construction workers.